


Leaves of Years

by StalwartNavigator (Fallwater023)



Category: The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Crack, Flower Crowns, Fluff, Fluff and Crack, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Hobbit Culture, Hobbits, Humor, Inaccurate Botany, Internalized Homophobia, Language of Flowers, Lothlórien, M/M, Marriage, Oblivious, One Shot, Short & Sweet, Shotgun Wedding, Weddings, Worldbuilding, at least the hobbit equivalent, i guess, might play a part in that or might not, that's what boromir is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-08
Updated: 2015-04-08
Packaged: 2018-03-21 22:24:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3706239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fallwater023/pseuds/StalwartNavigator
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Frodo and Sam had wandered off a short while ago, and he could just make them out, sitting in a clearing that caught the last of the daylight. </p><p>It looked like they were weaving <i>flower crowns.</i>"</p><p>Boromir is oblivious, Merry is panicked, Pip is also a bit oblivious bless him, and Frodo and Sam are done waiting.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Leaves of Years

_He sought her ever, wandering far_  
_Where leaves of years were thickly strewn_  
-J.R.R. Tolkien, _The Lay of Leithian_

Boromir sighed. All the golden trees and silver streams and unearthly music of Lothlorien were pretty enough, but there was nothing like a good pipe to relax a man. The hobbits were kind enough to oblige him. So there they sat, Meriadoc and Peregrin and he, idly puffing away. 

He sat up and peered through the gloomy late-afternoon. “What _are_ they doing?” He muttered, half to himself. Frodo and Sam had wandered off a short while ago, and he could just make them out, sitting in a clearing that caught the last of the daylight. 

It looked like they were weaving _flower crowns._

Meriadoc followed his gaze and choked. “Ah, um,” he spluttered for a moment before seeming to settle on something, “Well, it’s an old Hobbit custom. From our wandering days, you know, flowers have all these meanings, and, ah - ,” the lad prated on for a bit, mentioning off-handed at least half a dozen things Boromir had never known about Hobbits, the Shire, or plant life of any kind. Meantime, Frodo and Sam had finished, and gently set the crowns on the ground before wandering over to them. Frodo shuffled and blushed a bit. 

“Er, Pippin, could I trouble you to read us the vows?” Peregrin looked like he’d been hit in the face with a fish. It quickly broadened into a smile, and the lad scrambled to his feet. 

“Oh, aye! And gladly, cousin,” he looked like he wanted to say more, but settled for clapping the two on the shoulder. And off the three went. 

Boromir looked at Meriadoc. Meriadoc looked at Boromir. Boromir raised an eyebrow. 

“Vows?” 

Meriadoc gulped. 

What followed was an impressive flurry of explanation. Flowers were the most precious jewels hobbits had possessed after they left the Anduin and wandered, and in the years before and since had developed a host of meanings. Frodo and Sam’s wreaths, Meriadoc explained after squinting, were woven of ivy for good faith, lily of the valley for trust, peach and pear blossom for free giving and long friendship. 

This was a sort of ceremony of loyalty, Meriadoc said, and confirmed Boromir’s guess that it was like kneeling before the throne of Gondor to swear fealty. Boromir had certainly heard Sam call his friend ‘Mr. Frodo’ or ‘Master Frodo’ often enough, and the two had such different modes of speech as might be seen in a nobleman and his lowborn servant. 

The Baggins family was quite important in the Shire, Meriadoc agreed, so Sam had woven geraniums into Frodo’s crown for gentility and Frodo had woven chestnut leaves into Sam’s crown to say “do me justice”. Now they were sitting face to face, crowning each other, while Peregrin hung back. This part of the ceremony was private, Meriadoc said, and by rights they ought to look away, but they were far enough to not hear and that was the important bit. Then Frodo stood and raised Sam to his feet, and the two stood each with a hand on the other’s shoulder and circled around each other. The motion had a curious dignity to it, and Boromir felt a bit abashed at the look the two hobbits gave each other. He took a moment to examine his pipe. Out the corner of his eye he could see Meriadoc doing the same. 

“This is the part where they promise to support each other in all things,” Meriadoc muttered. “It’s the really important bit. The next part is optional, really, and sometimes hobbits are caught without a third to say the vows and they have to make do with just the first bit.” 

Then Peregrin approached them, and took a standing position with his hands in front of him like he was reading a book. Sam and Frodo sat in front of him. Peregrin took on the air of someone reciting poetry, and Meriadoc murmured again, “If they were home this part would be the Mayor, or probably the Thain since Frodo’s a cousin of his, ‘cuz it’s the bit where their - their _fealty_ is read into law.” Peregrin finished with his recitation, whatever it was, and the two hobbits rose again. They had taken off their crowns and were holding them to their chests; when they had made a full circle around Peregrin, Sam following Frodo, the two swapped crowns. “Sam promises to follow Frodo in all things,” Meriadoc translated, “And the two agree that they won’t ask of each other what they wouldn’t ask of themselves.” 

It all seemed very right and noble and familiar. It also seemed that Meriadoc was a terrible liar. Boromir could read the faint tremble in Meriadoc’s hands, and the awkward shifting of his eyes. There was something about this ceremony that Boromir wasn’t to know. 

Well, it was said that the dwarves were fierce defenders of their secrets. Perhaps they were not the only small people of the North to be so inclined. It stung a bit that they had come all this way together and still the hobbits did not trust him - but he could let it lie.


End file.
